Welcome to Wabash College’s blog about literature and theory! Prof. Agata Szczeszak-Brewer’s Literary and Cultural Theory students explore the purpose of literature, learn about different critical approaches to literature, use these theories to construct arguments about texts, and develop an awareness of their cultural resources.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Pepsi Max Commercial: Too Sensitive These Days

The Super Bowl is an iconic day where sports and social media come together for a night of entertainment. Super Bowl commercials are just as exciting to watch as the game itself. These commercials are aimed to entertain and get the attention of the viewing audience, promoting their product and name. However, sometimes these commecials, as funny and entertaining as they can be, can be controversial and offend certain viewers. In class, we discussed the Pepsi Max commercial, where an african american husband is dominated by his african american wife, and at the end of the commercial they come together when they share a Pepsi Max. Before the end of the commercial, a young, attractive white girl is jogging and he looks at her and smiles. The wife gets jealous and throws the can of Pepsi at her husband, the husband ducks, the can hits the white girl in the head, and the couple then runs away. Now, we discussed in class a Yahoo! article where the writer said how this commercial can be offensive. I can understand how this commercial can poke fun at certain stereotypes of african americans and african american women specifically. But I think that this commercial is absolutely harmless. I feel as though people are becoming way to sensitive when it comes to compaines making these issues more comical. I understand that some commercials go a little far, but for the most part, the Pepsi Max commercial is simply entertaining. It bothers me when people try to find more meaning in something than what is really there. A commercial is meant to target the greater viewing audience; I find it hard to believe that Pepsi Max would deliberately promote a stereotype when its sole purpose for the commercial is to make people buy there product. Let's not look so deep into these commercials for meaning that isn't there.